[...] The first floor of the three-story building clocked the highest readings, a maximum of 1.24 microsieverts per hour. That would amount to an annual [external] exposure level of about 10.86 millisieverts. [...]

“The amount detected is to be sure higher than other buildings, but it is not an amount where evacuation is warranted,” said Hidekazu Chayama, an official at Nuclear Emergency Response, asked whether there are plans to advise the first-floor residents to relocate. The government’s threshold for forced evacuation of residents is set at 20 millisieverts per year.

All 12 residences in the building, completed in July, are currently occupied. Ten people, including three children, live on the first floor. The Nihonmatsu city spokesman said none of the tenants plan to move as of now, though some have expressed a wish to do so. [...]

17 comments to Trapped? 3 children living in radioactive apartment built with tainted cement, dose over 10 millisieverts/yr — Nuclear Official: Not an amount where evacuation is warranted -WSJ

here is the problem. they say 10 millisieverts/yr isnt harmful. ok that may be true as far as radioactive exposure. however what about the toxicity of the element that is emitting this radiation? media just covers the radioactivity but not how TOXIC the elements are. thats why these kinds of reports are worded the way the are. to skew public knowledge ofhow radiation works. i dnt want to be near shit emitting 1 microsievert/hr. the world is blind

But aren’t these wood houses built on a solid foundation, aka cement??? One would think without a solid foundation, the home would be unsound, structurally, so either way, the tenets are in danger, whether it be from radioactive cementing in the foundation, or an unsound homestead that could fall from even a small tremor….. Someone correct me if I am wrong?

The apartment owner/seller is liable for health damage, or was this a government project? The children will probably have a very high rate of thyroid cancer….someone needs the electric chair…oh thats too kind..let them go work with the others at Reactor 4…Dying from radiation poisoning is like terrible burns all over..inside and out..pain meds do not help with the pain from nerves dying/skin dying/lesions inside and out, internal burns..its a terrible terrible death unless the person is put into a medically induced coma-with the use of heavy heavy morphine.

The article is very ambiguous about exactly what kind of radiation the concrete is emitting. But it wouldn’t be iodine at this point in any case. I would have thought gross dose would have been gamma (because there is normally a moisture shield, joists, insulation and wooden floor over concrete base). But it mentioned a teenager’s absorbed dose, which couldn’t be determined from constant low-dose gamma. So some isotopes (could be nasty ones) must be getting into the indoor space from the concrete, if the contamination isn’t in drywall or other materials.

Makes me wonder if Japan is building really cheap apartments with substandard materials and no moisture shields. If so, they won’t last long…

First; I will bet that they are measuring radiation in the air, at some distance away from the concrete.

Does this not reduce the radiation measurement by a factor of up to ten or more? So the REAL radiation measurement is much higher than what they say here, if that is the case.

In other words, if kids are playing and sleeping on the FLOOR, where the radiation is highest, they are getting a a much larger dose of radiation than what they are reporting. This is also a problem with how the authorities report most radiation readings. They always seem to minimize them by going up in the air, away from the radioactive source, in order to cut down the amount shown.. Then they can say; see, it is ‘safe’ .

Anyone feel like estimating what the reading would be if the Geiger Counter were to touch the concrete? And then what that would translate into in terms of radiation exposure compared to Chernobyl victims in evacuation zones?

This is another example of how to minimize something and make it look a lot better than it actually is. Correct me if I am mistaken..

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